21% jump in farm suicides in Madhya Pradesh

BHOPAL: Every eight hours, a farmer committed suicide in Madhya Pradesh in 2016. It was a year that saw 1,321 farmer suicides — the highest since 2013. And while farm suicides dropped by up to 10% elsewhere in the country between 2014 and 2016, MP saw a rise. This grim information was provided by Union agriculture minister Purushottam Rupala in Lok Sabha on March 20, 2018. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) is yet to release its report on accidents and suicides for 2016, but the minister’s data says Madhya Pradesh is third in the country in terms of farm suicides. There has seen a 21% jump in farm suicides since 2013. The state, which claims double-digit agricultural growth for five years and was recently given its fifth Krishi Karman Award, reported a horrifying 6,071 farmer suicides between 2011 and 2016.

Farm growth story only on paper: Farmer leaders Farm distress continues to be agonizingly real in a state that prides itself in being kisan friendly. Last year, the agrarian crisis sparked massive protests in June that engulfed large parts of the state. Farmers went on the rampage, demanding appropriate price for their produce and loan waiver. Five protesting farmers were shot dead by police during violence in Mandsaur. The agitation died down, but not the farm suicides. TOI’s efforts to contact agriculture minister Gauri Shankar Bisen failed as his phone was switched off. Principal secretary, agriculture, Rajesh Rajora abstained from commenting on the increase in farmer suicides, but talked at length about growth in agriculture sector. “As per NSSO data, the income of agricultural households was only Rs 17,400 in 2003 and it increased to Rs 74,300 in 2013. Due to increase in irrigation, power supply and adaptation of new techniques, mandi arrivals for several crops have tripled and most of them have doubled in the last 10 years,” he said. Why then the suicides? Farmer leaders of the state claim that the farm growth story is restricted only to paper. “The growth of farm sector in Madhya Pradesh is based on powerpoint presentations and reports prepared in offices. It is not on the basis of grassroots evaluation. Things are entirely different on the ground. Even today, two farmers committed suicide — in Harda and Khandwa. Government denies there are financial issues behind these suicides, but it is poverty that leads to disputes in every family,” said Kedar Sirohi, one of the five members of the committee that overlooks Aam Kisan Union, a non-political body of farmers active in Malwa and Nimar regions of MP. “The government claims 20-29% agricultural growth and also says that they are not taking interest on loans to farmers and are even giving them a rebate of Rs 10,000 per Rs 1 lakh loan taken by them. If these figures were realistic, then by this time we all farmers should own an SUV,” Sirohi said. MP, which claims to be No. 1 in agriculture growth rate, was third in farmer suicides in 2016 — after Maharashtra (3,661) and Karnataka (2,079). MP has remained in the top 5 in farm suicides. Worryingly, the suicide rate went up at a time when other states managed to hold it down. Maharashtra recorded 4,004 farmer suicides in 2014 but it dropped to 3,661 in 2016. During the same period, farm suicides in MP went up from 1,198 to 1,321.